It's hard to believe that it's only been three weeks since my last post, it feels like it's been a lifetime. Simultaneously, I can't believe I've already been here for three weeks because time is literally flying by. Here are some updates on my life, a few of which I have shamelessly copy-pasta-ed from an email I sent to Julia:
- Schoolwork is a slog. We just finished our third week of classes and I put so much time into homework and studying that it's kind of scary. I've definitely never worked this hard for school ever in my life before. It's paying off though, my vocabulary is ballooning and I'm learning a ton. It's so funny seeing other international students, whether out in the city or at our university itself, because almost all of their programs are not very rigorous and so they just rage face all the time. On top of that, there's the language pledge.
- The language pledge is simultaneously not as hard as I thought it would be and incredibly frustrating at the same time. I struggle by, but it's doable. The problem is that I'm a pretty talkative person and I'm completely unable to express myself even remotely as well as I want to do, and so all of these thoughts and emotions and everything just kind of pile up in my head behind the dam that is the language barrier and it is so taxing. I'd definitely say that the worst part of the language pledge is how isolating it is though, in terms of our program and the others on our campus. Because we're forced to speak Chinese all the time, because all of our classes are completely separate from all the other international students, we can't really interact with them well. They speak either English or their native languages when they're not in class, and it really makes communicating with them difficult. There's another program at a different university in Beijing that also has a language pledge though, so I'm gonna ask our program director to arrange more joint activities because we ran into them at the great wall and it was really awesome to interact with other people that are going through the same thing as us.
- The great wall （长城）is absolutely magnificent. There is no form of media that does justice to it. Standing there, on the wall, seeing it stretch over the rugged hills in both directions as far as the eye can see was one of the most incredible sights I have ever seen. Absolutely ridiculous.
- To reiterate, the other 3 kids in my program are awesome.
- I am really happy I'm here, but it's a different kind of happiness than I think I've ever experienced before. Sometimes it's hard, thinking about how different my study abroad experience is from almost everyone else's, but there are those moments where despite the language barrier and the cultural barrier and the struggle, the shared nature of humanity's experience shines through and those moments, whether experienced alone or shared with others, keep me going and remind me that this is what I really want, that this is what is best for me.
- My roommate is a great guy. His name is Wei Hai, he's a 24 year old grad student from a province adjacent to Beijing. He's super nice, funny, and moderately westernized. He helps me with my homework, we talk about everything and everything cultural, we go out to eat, we watch TV together, it's a really simple but good relationship and is incredibly grounding when the rest of life gets hectic.
- Travel plans:
- Next weekend, our entire program is leaving on Thursday night for Luoyang, one of the ancient capitals of China. There are tons of historical sites like the famous Buddhist Grottoes, which are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We're taking an overnight train down on Thursday night and an overnight train back on Saturday night, and it should be a blast.
- For our week off in October, I'm planning a trip down to Sichuan. Most of it will be me by myself, but we're planning on meeting up at the apparently wonderful Jiuzhaigou National Park. Also on my itinerary is Emei Shan, one of China's most sacred mountains, where I'm planning on hiking up and spending the night at an old Buddhist Monastery on the peak; Leshan, site of the famous Giant Buddha; and Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. I'll take a train down after we get out of class that Friday, with the transit time of 30 hours getting me to Chengdu on Sunday morning. It'll be a great opportunity to see a wide swatch of the country. I'll bus over to Emei Shan on Sunday, spend Sunday and Monday there, go to Leshan on Tuesday, then head up to Jiuzhaigou for Wednesday-Saturday. I'll be back in Chengdu on Saturday evening, and then I'll fly back to Beijing on Sunday evening. It's going to be an absolute blast, I am super excited. Fall is the best time to travel in China, and I'm super excited to be able to see the country in its full fall glory.
- Day/weekend trips that I'm planning, as of right now: Qingdao, Harbin, Tianjin. I also really really want to go to Taiwan at some point but that's a little pricey so we'll see if it actually happens
- Particularly good/memorable experiences so far:
- The night I wrote my last blog post, my friend Forest and I went to a 65th story bar on the tallest building in Beijing. It was super swanky (an SLR, a Phantom, and a Gallardo were parked in front of the lobby when we walked in) and the drinks were super pricy (by China standards, the cheapest drinks/cocktails on the menu were 90 kuai) but man the view was absolutely glorious. We sat there and sipped and listened to their live jazz and chatted for like 3 hours.
- 长城
- Sitting in a jazz bar in the Hohai area owned by a piano player who was formerly Wynton Marsalis and listening to local jazz. The band that was playing wasn't particularly good, but I love jazz like I love few other forms of art and sitting there, sipping on a cold draft Hoegaarden and just feeling the emotion that I love jazz for was glorious. I was at the bar by myself, but chatted up some new friends, who were very interested in my comparatively more experienced perspective on jazz.
- The Onam party at a local Indian restaurant that my dad's good friend put together as the Beijing Kerala Association President. So one of my dad's really good friends from college lives in Beijing, which has been fantastic for me. I go to their house irregularly and eat fantastic (free) 地道 South Indian food and just chat with him and stuff. Anyways, he is the president of the Beijing Kerala Association (which is surprisingly large), and they have a big Onam gathering every year, which he invited me to. Onam is a big festival in Kerala, the state in India that I'm from. Anyways, at this festival, I met a Press Trust of India's China correspondent, who had been based in Islamabad and Colombo before Beijing. I also met India's Deputy Ambassador to China, who was the special guest at the event. It's super interesting to see the Mallu community abroad, especially in a place like Beijing, and everyone there was super welcoming to me. I got quite a few invitations to peoples' houses to eat/visit, and I'll definitely be taking people up on that. All in all, it was a good time #关系
- Far East Movement/Dash Berlin/Hardwell yesterday at Beijing Worker's Stadium yesterday (Thursday). Yesterday was a national holiday, because it's a big festival called Mid Autumn Festival (中秋节), which is famous for its moon cakes (月饼). On a side note, I've been eating a lot of moon cakes of all different flavors. Woke up at 8, did some homework out of necessity, and then raged from 10AM to midnight. Pregamed in my dorm room, went to a fantastic craft brewery/bar called Great Leap that was very close to worker's stadium, bought more alcohol at 7-11 on the way to the venue (some of which was confiscated because Forest tried to smuggle it into the venue in her bag), ended up getting to the venue around 330-345, right before Far East Movement got on. The venue was actually really well put together, with a fantastic stage and massive sound system. Far East Movement, who I'm not particularly into, played a good set, and then Dash Berlin killed it afterwards. Of course, the highlight of the night was Hardwell's closing set, which spanned almost 3 hours (after Dash Berlin's 2 hour set). When he opened with his Spaceman/Thing Called Love mashup, I almost died. It was beautiful. The cherry on top: I got a picture with him afterwards! It was his first ever show in China, and he seemed like a really good guy from the 2 seconds I talked to him. Afterwards, we went back to the same bar and ate and drank more and then headed back to our university. I had an exam and a presentation today, and waking up after 5 hours of sleep on a day full of rage was not the most pleasant experience. Side story: some rando that Forest hooked up with gave her a wooden talisman type thing, which she then gifted to me. It is large and incredibly obnoxious, but I love it. I wore it today for my exam, and I think I'm gonna make wearing it to exams a tradition. Be ready.
- Just today, on my walk to the magnificent cafe that I'm sitting at right now, I was wondering through some 地道 as of yet un-commercialized hutongs (the names for the small alleyways that crisscross certain parts of town that are a very unique part of Beijing's culture) and got completely lost. I was wondering around asking people for directions, eventually finding my way to the cafe, but I quite enjoyed being lost. It was eerily quiet, considering how incredibly loud and bustling this city is 100% of the time, remarkably peaceful, with not another 外国人 in sight. The cafe that I'm sitting in right now is in a beautiful covered courtyard, with bamboo and other plants growing in the middle, with a classic tiled floor and comfortable chairs and cheap, decent Chinese beer. I'm writing this post instead of doing the massive amount of HW that I have this weekend because I haven't blogged in a while, but as soon as I'm done I have plenty to be getting back to.
- Countless conversations with everyday Chinese people about all sorts of things. Half the time they make me feel super on top of my game, and half the time they make me feel completely inadequate (again, in terms of my language ability). It's quite an incredible experience though, when you're able to transcend the language barrier and converse with someone in their native tongue when they expect absolutely nothing out of you it's pretty fantastic. Also, Chinese people complimenting my Chinese always gives me a significant morale boost, even though these compliments are often doled out for seemingly no reason at all.
- I eat well. Here are some notable things I've tried
- Beijing Roast Duck. It's famous, and for good reason; it's served with veggies and an absolutely heavenly sauce that you wrap in a small tortilla like thing called bing.
- Jianbing. It's a Beijing street food staple, made of grilled noodle dough, wrapped up with scrambled eggs, chili oil, veggies, sometimes peanuts, into something vaguely resembling a breakfast burrito
- Tons of hot pot, of all different styles.
- Xinjiang style fried naan and mutton. Xinjiang is the part of the country the Muslim Uighur minority hails from, and they make some mean naan and mutton dishes. The classic mutton kebab is a stable, you can find it basically anywhere on the street and in tons of restaurants, but the Xinjian restaurants do it best (obviously). They also have a fantastic dish where they fry their fantastic naan with bits of mutton and veggies, it is heavenly.
- Duck hearts. Not a big fan, far too gamey and tough for me. The taste was quite good, but the texture combined with the knowledge that I was eating duck hearts put it squarely in the "no plans to try it again" category.
- Rabbit. Not a big fan of the meat's texture but I had it served in an absolutely glorious stew that was spicy and flavorful and just all around delicious.
- Tofu. The tofu here is magnificent, comes in all shapes and sizes and flavors. I will never be able to eat tofu in America again, it's really not even remotely similar. Quite sad.
- Dumplings on dumplings on dumplings. I eat dumplings probably 3-4 times a week, since there's a super small, kinda grungy place like 5 minutes from campus that serves 5 kuai (exchange rate is 6 kuai to a dollar) baskets of reliably good but not great dumplings. It's the most convenient meal ever, and the lady that works there is awesome.
- Moon cakes, because it's 中秋节 season. Aside from the classic traditional flavor, I've also tried blueberry and date flavors, as well as a very interesting one with chicken in the filling. It was a surprisingly good combination of flavors (味道）.
- There are plenty of other delicious things, but this is all I cgan come up with now. As I continue my culinary pursuits, I will continue to update y'all of them.
